Channel 08

MoveOn Ad Slams McCain on Iraq Withdrawal Timetable

By Ed O'Keefe
MoveOn.org has produced a new ad using recent comments by Iraq's prime minister to make its case that John McCain is wrong about the Iraq war.

"Timeline" is a 30-second spot that picks up on Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent statements that he wants a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops in his country. The ad also notes that "the American people are demanding a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq."

"But John McCain doesn't want a timetable," the ad continues. "He'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars more to keep our keep our troops in Iraq for years and years."

MoveOn will spend $100,000 on the ad, according to a source with the group.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll of Americans shows that the nation is evenly divided on the question of a withdrawal timetable. Fifty percent of respondents support a timetable, while 49 percent would prefer events on the ground in Iraq help determine when American forces should leave.

Barack Obama and McCain earn about equal support from Americans on the issue of the Iraq war, with 47 percent supporting Obama, and 45 percent backing McCain.

Attack ads on McCain's position on Iraq have done little thus far to change assessments of his ability to lead the nation's military: 72 percent of respondents in the latest Post-ABC poll said McCain would make a good commander in chief.

To all that want Mcain. He was a lousy pilot and a lousy President. You all sure must be scared of loosing you're driving privilege. Its over, yes even Obama can not change anything over night. You people are screwed. Mind you, most of you will create lots of jobs, MAKING CASKETS.

Posted by: justadad55+ | July 16, 2008 11:10 PM

MoveOn.org is a political for the infamous George Soros. All of Soros' charities are fronts to allow him to make money.

Soros is an infamous and a greedy speculator who has acted like the fictional Auric Godfinger of James Bond fame. He previously was complicit in attacks upon the Bank of England in 1992 and Central Bank of Thailand in 1997. He profited handsomely on each occassion, reportedly making well in excess of $ 1 billion in his shorting the British Pound on September 16, 1992, while he still resided in London.

He has a family blood fued going on with the Bush clan since George W., the village idiot, scamed Soros and his cronies into acquiring Bush's defunct Spectrum 7 Oil Co. in 1986.

You be the judge, but whatever you decide you cannot rule out Soros, and possibly New York Senator Schumer acting in concert with Soros, as having some role in the termoil in the credit markets and the failure of Indy.

Some facts about George Soros disdain for George W. Bush. Soros owned one-third interest in Harken Energy in 1986 when Bush's father was Vice President. Harken bought Spectrum 7 from Bush for $2.2 Million, bailing Bush out of a company that had lost $1.5 million that year. In an article posted on the Web site of the magazine The Nation, David Corn, the magazine's Washington editor, said he happened to run into Mr Soros at a party recently and asked him why Harken had bought Mr Bush's company. "I didn't know him," Corn quoted Mr Soros as saying. "He was supposed to bring in the Gulf connection. But it didn't come to anything. We were buying political influence. That was it. He was not much of a businessman." Soros felt Bush family connections came with the purchase. They did not.

In 2000-01 Soros and his cronies reportedly lost a boat load of money speculating in the commodities markets because of the Enron operations, which Soros connected to Bush family influence in Houston and Soros' belief that the Bush boys were out to humble him. Soros became very bitter at the Bush clan for being duped for the second time.

In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it", and many continue to state this as Soros's position even after Soros clarified the humorous nature of the statement in a Q&A session at the end of his March 3, 2004 address to California's Commonwealth Club.

Soros has been predicting doom for the U.S. economy principally because of his feud with the Bush family. He has a history of dishonourable conduct. His family changed its name from Schwartz to Soros in 1936 in order to conceal their Jewish heritage and continue to operate their businesses in Budapest, Hungry with the rise of the Nazis. As a teenager Soros and his family apparently collaborated with the Nazis to save his own skin going as far as assisting in the deportation of other Jews by the Nazis.

As a speculator, he is infamous as the person who instigated "Black Wednesday" in September 1962 by shorting $10 billion British pounds to harm the Bank of England and the Tory government. Likewise, he instigated an attack on the Thai Baht in 1997 provoking the Asian Financial Crisis. Soros is one of the world's most vicious speculators and believes that information or misinformation can not only undermine market fundamentals, but also change the fundamentals. He has used this tactic to short currencies and to "front run" currencies and other commodities.

In an editorial in September 2007, Investor's Business Daily criticized Soros for funding organizations such as MoveOn.org and has claimed that Soros is not transparent in the way he gives away his money. The newspaper said: "The irony here is that Soros claims to be an advocate of an 'open society.' His OSI does just the legal minimum to disclose its activities. The public shouldn't have to wait until an annual report is out before the light is flipped on about the Open Society's political action."
IBD said that Soros' giving cannot be considered philanthropy to the extent that it is political activism. The editorial compared Soros and Bill Gates, pointing out that the latter gave money to improving medical services, while Soros tends to fund foundations and NGOs which he characterises as promoting civil society and democracy."
In April 2008, Soros hosted an event in his apartment that had guests such as David Brock of the self-described progressive watchdog group Media Matters and liberal commentator Paul Begala. Brock described that the plan intends to raise $40 million to run political advertisements against the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, through a group called The Fund for America and Progressive Media, whose key backer, according to politico.com, is Soros.

There have been suggestions that Soro's political gifts may have served his own interests. In late 2006, Soros bought about 2 million shares of Halliburton, which had been a major target of criticism (for war profiteering) by MoveOn and the Center for American Progress. Soros's critics allege that these organizations suddenly stopped criticism of Halliburton after Soros purchased the stock, and subsequently the stock values appreciated significantly, netting substantial profits for Soros.

Soros has been active in all sorts of speculation. He plays to win at any cost to innocent non-partisans. The crude oil futures market conditions are made for his exploitation, as are the financials, where rumour has driven down Freddy and Fanny.

Soros' writings focus heavily on the concept of reflexivity, where the biases of individuals enter into market transactions, potentially changing the fundamentals of the economy. Soros argues that such transitions in the fundamentals of the economy are typically marked by disequilibrium rather than equilibrium, and that the conventional economic theory of the market (the 'efficient market hypothesis') does not apply in these situations. Soros has popularized the concepts of dynamic disequilibrium, static disequilibrium, and near-equilibrium conditions.
Reflexivity is based on three main ideas:

Reflexivity is best observed under special conditions where investor bias grows and spreads throughout the investment arena. Examples of factors that may give rise to this bias include (a) equity leveraging or (b) the trend-following habits of speculators.
Reflexivity appears intermittently since it is most likely to be revealed under certain conditions; i.e., the equilibrium process's character is best considered in terms of probabilities.
Investors' observation of and participation in the capital markets may at times influence valuations AND fundamental conditions or outcomes.
A current example of reflexivity in modern financial markets is that of the debt and equity of housing markets. Lenders began to make more money available to more people in the 1990s to buy houses. More people bought houses with this larger amount of money, thus increasing the prices of these houses. Lenders looked at their balance sheets which not only showed that they had made more loans, but that their equity backing the loans--the value of the houses, had gone up (because more money was chasing the same amount of housing, relatively). Thus they lent out more money because their balance sheets looked good, and prices went up more, and they lent more, etc. Prices increased rapidly, and lending standards were relaxed. The salient issue regarding reflexivity is that it explains why markets gyrate over time, and do not just stick to equilibrium--they tend to overshoot or undershoot.

Today, George Soros is reportedly combining with other speculators to: (1) profiteer from the Israeli-Iranian nuclear dispute and (2) to aid his political agenda of crushing the Republican party in November. It is rumoured that Soros and his cronies are agitating the futures markets by aiding in spreading rumors of eventual military action by Israeli Defense Forces, aided by the U.S. military. Soros reportedly has had several operatives in Israel and in the U.K. and this country leak info to the news media to protect against a "short squeeze" and drive up the price of oil. Goldman's commodities operation in London is also making a killing and is aligned with the Soros Gang, if not complicit in the reflexivity operations. The commodities Futures people have been taken off the field by legislation and regulations. Chris Cox, as head of the SEC is akin to allowing Michael Jackson to be a cub scout leader. He was named in a huge securities fraud action and was out placed by his law firm to run for Congress in 1988.

The futures markets are dictating the spot price of crude oil, which governs what the consumer pays at the petrol pump. Bush and his cronies from Texas independent exploration and production companies are making huge profits from spot oil prices. The big oil companies are not really to blame; they have profited from the spike, but their interests are better served with lower prices to stave off alternative energy sources, as is the Saudis.

The Iranians are ironically aligned with the Israeli and London speculators because oil at $140 per barrel (1) limits the military options against Iran's nuclear program lest oil go to $400, (2) allows Iran, with outdated technology to profiteer from high prices on declining oil production to weaken economically the US and EU,who are Iran biggest rivals next to Israel,(3) it undermines public opinion in Europe against military action against Iran given Europe's 20th Century wars, and (4) it externalises Iran's domestic problems, including hyper-inflation in excess of 20% per annum.

Schumer's staff will not touch Soros because Soros spent over $ 23 million on attack adds against the Republicans in 2006 because George W. Bush sold him a defunct oil company owned by Bush in 1986 with a promise to connect Soros with Gulf nations oil ministers, which never happened. Soros has a code of conduct much like the fictional character Auric Goldfinger who battled James Bond. He is ruthless, arrogant and vindictive, just like Chuck Schumer.

DID SCHUMER ACT AS THE UNDISCLOSED AGENT PROVOCATEUR FOR SOROS TO ASSIST SOROS TO PROFIT FROM INDYMAC'S FAILURE BY EMPLOYING THE SOROS MODUS OPERANDI OF REFLEXIVITY?

Why else would a purportedly sophisticated Senator from New York utter the public cry of wolf? Schumer and Soros need to be investigated for the enormous harm visited upon the banking system at this time of crisis. We all need to enlighten the Congress and the Justice Department of this matter given Soros past history of predatory practices to enrich himself at the expense of central banking systems in England and in Asia, as well as his conviction in France, which was affirmed by the Conseil d'Etat, for insider trading.

Here is a Fortune Magazine article from 1997 about Soros' attacks on Malayasia's currency which helped Soros make a financial Killing, while Soros hid behind a charity that was allegedly supporting demoracy in Asia:

GEORGE SOROS, SCOURGE OF ASIA? CONSPIRACY THEORIES

By MAHATHIR MOHAMAD; NEEL CHOWDHURY
September 29, 1997
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was on vacation during the speculative attack on Southeast Asia's currencies in mid-July, returned to Kuala Lumpur in a combative mood. Mahathir remains certain he has identified what caused the currency assault, which wiped 15% off the value of the Malaysian ringgit in the past two months: namely, George Soros, American billionaire hedge-fund manager. Mahathir, who vociferously objects to the merest hint of Western meddling in Asian affairs, believes Soros' aim is to punish Malaysia for its support of Myanmar, or, specifically, its ruling junta, the State Law and Order Council (SLORC). Soros' Open Society Institute opposes the antidemocratic activities of SLORC but has repeatedly denied that this has influenced Soros' investment decisions. "There is absolutely no connection between the Open Society Institute's Burma Project and the currency trading conducted by Soros Fund Management," Soros declared in an official statement. Even so, Soros was irked that in late July, Mahathir and the other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations formally ushered Myanmar into ASEAN. Here follow excerpts from an exclusive interview FORTUNE's Neel Chowdhury had with Mahathir in Kuala Lumpur:

FORTUNE: On what basis have you accused Mr. Soros of speculating on the Malaysian ringgit and other regional currencies?

MAHATHIR: We have definite information that he is involved. Of course, he is not the only one. Others followed suit. But he started it. In fact, he more or less confessed later on that he was involved. He had this idea that by applying pressure on Thailand and Malaysia he could prevent Myanmar from joining ASEAN. We also know that on his staff he has a person from Myanmar who might be influencing him. We have every evidence that he is involved.

FORTUNE: Why do you oppose the activities of Mr. Soros' Open Society regarding Myanmar?

MAHATHIR: We believe Myanmar should be given time to make the necessary adjustments. We never believe in applying pressure on people. Trying to starve a whole nation in order to force its government to behave, that is not our idea. If you want to act against the government, you act against the government.... You have to show them that the way others do things can bring benefits to the country without in any way undermining their authority. Even if they lose authority they're not going to be thrown into jail. We have seen in some countries that when military authorities give up power in favor of democracy, and they happen to lose the election, they are thrown into jail. I mean that democracy is not any better than the dictatorship, because once you are elected to become the government you throw people into jail and then you say that you are a democracy. To me it doesn't make sense.

FORTUNE: But hasn't Myanmar's military government put its political opponents under house arrest?

MAHATHIR: Yes, they put people under house arrest for this. In some countries people are executed, they are massacred as in Bosnia. What has the international community done? Nothing. You know they sat there and saw people being slaughtered in front of their eyes, and they did nothing. So why should we accuse these people? She [Burmese political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi] is living comfortably in her own house. There are restrictions, of course. But it's not as if she's being strung up....

FORTUNE: There has been an anti-Semitic strain in the reporting on Mr. Soros in the Malaysian newspapers. What do you plan to do about that?

MAHATHIR: No, we are not anti-Semitic, because, as you know, the Arabs are also a Semitic people. We have always treated American Jews without any consideration at all that they are Jews. But when a person of Jewish origin does this kind of thing, the effect is the same as when a Muslim carries out something that is akin to terrorism. Immediately people link it to Islam, to Muslims, although generally Muslims do not behave like terrorists....People should stop accusing Muslims of being terrorists. People should not link Jews to these kinds of activities. Most Jews I think are quite innocent. They are not involved in this at all. But the impression created is of course that being Jewish they have lots of money. They know how to manipulate money as much as some people assume we Muslims naturally are terrorists, including myself....

FORTUNE: Are you worried that this quarrel you've had with Mr. Soros will deter foreign investors from coming to Malaysia?

MAHATHIR: We have no choice. He has wiped out billions of dollars from our economy, and if we're going to sit by and say nothing in the hope that it will not deter investors, then we're going to pay a very high price for those investments.

FORTUNE: If Mr. Soros were right here in front of you, what would you say to him?

MAHATHIR: Go somewhere else.

WAS GEORGE SOROS AT IT AGAIN WITH FANNIE AND FREDDIE? Read this from Fortune:

Investor Jim Rogers tells Bloomberg that the Treasury Department's plan to shore up market confidence in Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) is an "unmitigated disaster" and that the country's largest mortgage lenders are "basically insolvent." "These companies were going to go bankrupt if they [the government] hadn't stepped in to do something, and they should've gone bankrupt with all of the mistakes they've made," Rogers reportedly said.

Rogers is a former partner of famed hedge fund manager George Soros and the current chairman of Rogers Holdings. He said that taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie and Freddie; and that the mortgage giants' stocks could fall further. Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst Daniel Zimmerman agrees, saying shares could slide another 35%. He lowered his price estimate for Fannie to $7 from $18 and for Freddie to $5 from $17. The analyst note isn't surprising, given the government's reported indifference to the fortunes of company shareholders. Fannie Mae's market cap is now about $9.5 billion, down from $38.9 billion at the end of 2007. Freddie Mac's market value has shrunk to about $4.4 billion from $22 billion at the end of last year.

Soros got a jab in, too. The billionaire investor told Reuters that "Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have a solvency crisis, not a liquidity crisis." The real problem, he says, is that Fannie and Freddie are "extremely leveraged," and that "deterioration in the housing market, the foreclosures, are going to cause losses which exceed their equity."

The Soros psuedo-charities are the problem and not the solution more often than not.

Posted by: Kevin25 | July 16, 2008 9:00 PM

Moveon.org is Obama's lap dog.

Six months ago it Moveon that called the general "General Betrayus" - and recently Obama flopped on this on (like so many other things) - saying that the general should be promoted and that Moveon was wrong.

I have an idea, maybe his daughter can do another interview and explain what he really means.

Posted by: Ernie | July 16, 2008 8:27 PM

Ah---California the original fruit cake country---full of nuts and fruits. Now you know why they like Obama.

Posted by: mr t | July 16, 2008 7:33 PM

Voting for Obama for President and Commander In Chief would be like voting for a 8 years old child to decide what the family budget should be spent on. Neither one has a clue as to what he or she is doing.

To have Obama as commander in chief would be a tragic mistake; one that would bring this nation to a disasterous consequence. Can you just see Obama as the top dog at 9/11? He would have found a reason why the Muslims flew those plane into the towers and hijacked the other two.

Posted by: Americacomesfirst | July 16, 2008 7:30 PM

moveon.org what a bunch of socilist losers . we need to inpeach Nancy Polsi for security vilations against the USA. Yall still California Dreaming

Posted by: gaboy | July 16, 2008 6:57 PM

Obama is a fake.

McCain is strong.

Obama is a lame.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2008 6:44 PM

McCain has lost every war he has been in.

McCain was one of the lowest scoring military students ever.

McCain has one of the worst military records one could have - even with the support of his Admiral father. He knows how to act like his father, but has nothing to back it up with upstairs.

McCain has no business experience. NONE. He's never worked a real job. He knows very little about how america works.

McCain couldn't even read this website if he wanted to - he doesn't know how to use a computer. McCain is out of touch with america. He uses servants to attend to all his needs - he lives off his wife's and our money. Even when running for POTUS, he only works 3-4 days a week. Does he even want to be POTUS?!

McCain has only negative value to america as POTUS.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2008 6:19 PM

What is victory? Bush and McCain have no clue what 'victory' is. There is no definition of victory except staying in Iraq, spend ourselves to death, killing more of our soldiers and innocent civilians and watching the Republicans violate every law in the process.

Posted by: Bill | July 16, 2008 6:15 PM

How does Moveon.org know where Obama stands? He flip-flopped on a timetable for withdrawl from Iraq many times, even in the course of a few hours in the same day. I think Obama supporters are hiding their heads in the sand even with Obama's many faux pas. Someone wrote that Obama wants "Afghanistan attended to more." If that were the case, then why did he not hold one substantive hearing on Afghanistan, since he is Chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on Afghanistan. When questioned several months ago by a reporter, he said he was too busy running for President. Just last month he told a reporter that his not going to Iraq "was irrelevant." Now, because he was "called out" on it, he's going to Iraq. He seems to wait until he's caught before he takes action. I'm still waiting for a hearing from his sub-committee. Maybe he doesn't know how to conduct a hearing?

Posted by: Janet8 | July 16, 2008 5:37 PM

John McCain is a hero.
John McCain is a great American.
John McCain would make a great president.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2008 5:28 PM

Obama is a joke and is not welcome in this state. Here in the Commonwealth, Virginians see past media manipulation, and a opportunistic charlatan whose only loyalty is to himself. To the rest of America, use your head.

Posted by: WahooWa | July 16, 2008 5:27 PM

"I believe that success will be fairly easy." McCain on Iraq in an interview on CNN.

"I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time." McCain on Iraq in an interview on CNN.

"I know how to win wars. And if I'm elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."
McCain in prepared remarks emailed to reporters.

Obama wants the importance of Iraq lessened and the importance of nuclear weapon security and Afghanistan attended to more. Apparently McCain has decided that Afghanistan is more important than he said in February but has a obsessive concern about Iraq. What the MoveOn ad tries to do is get McCain to define what is meant by victory. It is astonishing hat after 5 years we don't know and by doing that he will be able to set a timetable for departure.

In this ad no mocking or criticizing just requesting a timetable.and then move on. Hopefully MoveOn has learned from Obama that being direct and forceful is better than complaining, they certainly were here.

One fault with the ad, they did not document the basis for saying the Iraqi people want a pull out.

Posted by: Gator-ron | July 16, 2008 4:28 PM

Obama got some strong poll numbers today as he is very close behind in North Carolina and has a huge lead in Oregon and California. In further good news for Dems, Jeff Merkley is ahead for the first time in OR! Full roundup: http://campaigndiaries.com/2008/07/16/wednesday-polls/